Trivia

Met Pixar's founder John Lasseter at a panel where he told her that if she wanted to work at Pixar she needed to attend USC, they recruit from there. That fall she applied to USC and was admitted five months later. She credits the meeting with John as a life changing moment. At the time she was a stay-at-home mom with three young children, hosting a weekly book club, and secretly teaching herself how to write screenplays. After her first year of film school she was one of five students chosen as a finalist for the coveted editing internship at Pixar. She ended up not pursuing that path and instead focused on the writing and directing.

While at USC Anna was chosen by the faculty and her peers to direct a short film in the highly competitive CTPR 546 Production Class. The film was the teen thriller, "Haven's Point".

For her first feature Anna averaged 7-10 pages a day with one camera, on a 15 day shoot. She worked with rescue horses, and children, and managed to get one pick-up day at the end where she gained 30 set-ups with two teams shooting simultaneously in order to be on time and within budget.

Played high school football on the boys JV team.

Major tomboy as a kid. Enjoys being feminine now.

Was cut from the girls basketball team in high school for playing on the boys JV football team, which was devastating for her.

Senior Class President of her graduating class, Del Campo High School, Fair Oaks, Ca.

Born in Greenbrae, Ca. Raised by her veterinarian father in the countryside of Sonoma/Marin County, and the suburbs of Sacramento, with her mother. Father still lives in Petaluma, Ca, in the same home she was brought home to as a newborn.

Doe Mayer, who holds the Mary Pickford Chair at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, interviewed Anna for her entrance application and asked her what film she had watched recently that intrigued her. Anna told her "Capote" because she was fascinated with the life of novelist Truman Capote who wrote in "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," two films starkly different from each other. She also admired the work of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The thing that pushed her to finally apply to film school was Star Wars III. At the time she was studying the life of George Lucas and The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, while also working on a novel that echoed Star Wars in similar ways. Looking into the future, and worried she wouldn't be able to direct her novel series later on, she decided she needed to learn how to direct. To this day she continues to work on the novel series.

Resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Favorite T.V. shows as a child was "The Mickey Mouse Club," "You Can't Do That on Television," "She-Ra," and "Knight Rider".

Directors she aspires to be like are Marty Scorsese, Nora Ephron, Jane Campion and George Lucas.

Mentored by the same professor as Ryan Coogler, John Watson, from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Ryan directed "Fig" while Anna directed, "Haven's Point" under Watson's guidance. John Watson is known for producing "Backdraft".

After attending a writer's group in San Francisco hosted by novelist and Pixar mentor, James Dalessandro, her life took a dramatic turn. After reading ten pages of her novel aloud to the group he looked up at her and said, "You're not a novelist. You're a screenwriter." Afterwards he encouraged to apply to Columbia, UCLA, or USC right away. When she responded with, "But I'm a mom," he said, "So?" She considers this another life altering moment in her journey towards becoming a filmmaker. At the time she had three children under the age of eight where her primary focus was raising them while trying to write her novel series on the side. This was the first time she was introduced to the idea she could become a screenwriter. She was twenty-eight and would end up attending USC in the fall of 2008 at the age of twenty-nine.

Project Greenlight Finalist for the 2015 Season.